


Nothern and Eastern delights

by Rogercat



Category: TOLKIEN J. R. R. - Works & Related Fandoms, The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Age Difference, Dwarf Culture & Customs, Dwarf/Elf Relationship(s), F/M, Female Character of Color, Gen, Gift Giving, Jewelry, Married Couple, Married Life, Moria | Khazad-dûm, Pre-Canon, Second Age, Secret Relationship, Tolkien Secret Santa, Tolkien Secret Santa 2018, Winter, Winter Solstice, nothern lights
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-14
Updated: 2018-12-14
Packaged: 2019-09-18 00:24:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,617
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16984623
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rogercat/pseuds/Rogercat
Summary: Winter season is around, and sometimes you need a little unusual inspiration





	Nothern and Eastern delights

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Narya (Narya_Flame)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Narya_Flame/gifts).



It was a minor complaint that first caught his attention.

 

“ ** _Why_ ** does the winters have to be so cold up here in the north?!”  

 

“Pardon?” Celebrimbor asked in slight confusion, looking up from his work to see Narvi standing in the doorway to his forge. She seemed very displeased, despite being dressed in one of her warmer winter dresses, a sign of that she had not gotten any request to work on something in stone, since otherwise she would have worn her working clothes.                            

 

“Don't get me wrong, Tyelpe, I like living here in Khazad-dûm and having you as a husband, but the winters here is so….awfully long and dark with short days and long nights! **_And this awful winter cold!_ ** This is the season when I miss the warmth of my home in the Orocarni the most!”

 

Ah, she must have gotten stuck by some homesickness for her birthplace, where she lived her first fifty years of life. No big wonder really, when he though a little about it, it was well over one hundred years since she moved here to Khazad-dûm so perhaps he should have expected something like this eventually.

 

“Shall I try and find a way to lighten up your mood? I admit that it would be impossible to start a journey to the distant East in this season, but may I try to use something else?” he asked carefully, she was not yet in a really bad mood but it could easy turn that way.  

 

“Oh, do whatever you can figure out! Anything to not make this winter feel so endless!” Narvi responded, throwing up her hands in the air before running off to somewhere, her long braid flying in the air behind her.

 

First finishing the necklace he had planned to be a gift for her at the coming winter celebration, Celebrimbor added it to the now finished jewelry set he had made over the past weeks.

 

“Do whatever I can figure out, huh? Hm...what to plan here for her….”

 

Traveling to the East was impossible at the moment, that would take too much to plan out and Celebrimbor seriously doubted that he could be away from Ost-in-Edhil for more than a year because a travel to the Orocarni could easy become a decade or more for him, thanks to that not only would he want to see where Narvi had been born, he naturally would end up studying the Dwarven culture there and the lands around. Rumour even said that some smaller clans of Avari Elves might live in the deserts, rarely seen by the mortals and Dwarves.  

 

“Oh, my family members would be so _jealous_ if I managed to visit Cuiviénen where our race started!” he thought with some small glee over how their faces would look like if he told them something like that. It was really easy to imagine Fëanor, Curufin and his dead uncles secretly desiring to see where the First Elves had awoken, wishing for a connection to those who once had lived there.

 

But now he needed to think of something for Narvi. Visiting Ost-in-Edhil in the middle of winter was out of question, even in peaceful times there was a high risk of accidents that could happen to a group of travelers who was foolish enough to travel when it was snow and ice on the ground. Besides, they had visited the Elven city just this passed summer, so returning there again would be too soon for a new visit.  

 

~X~X~X~X~X~X

 

A few days later, he had checked around and asked some other Dwarves he was friendly with. Now Celebrimbor was leading Narvi to a special destination, guided by another Dwarf who was on guard city.    

 

“Why...the Endless Stair?!” she demanded to know, slightly out of breath yet also freezing in the cold winds despite the layers of clothing and furs she wore. It did not help that the darkness of winter night was around them, even with lamps set up to bring light. Even Celebrimbor, who also had dressed to keep himself warm, felt that she had a legal excuse to complain since she was not brought up in the Misty Mountains to be used to the freezing winters while growing up.   

 

“I found out that Durin's Tower should be perfect for a very rare view that I studied though the star maps over the past days and which seemed possible to appear tonight since it mostly happen in winter. We are lucky, there is no clouds to block the sky this evening.”   

 

As the deeper darkness of winter nights fell over their heads, something else started to form. It seemed almost like a curtain flowing in a unseen wind from a open window, but made of lights changing like of free will on its own, extending approximately in the east–west direction. A light green was the clearest and strongest colour, but there was some red and even a faint hint of blue as well. With the starry sky as background, one could almost imagine it as something sent from the supernatural world.

 

“This is…?!” Narvi gasped in wonder, her eyes wide as she could not look away from the heavenly spectacle far above them.

 

“The winter elegance that is called northern light, beloved. They are more common in the more distant north, but it can sometimes be seen here as well, if you know where to look.”

 

Celebrimbor enjoyed the look of pure wonder on her face, where he stood with his arms crossed. He did not know if the distant East had anything similar happening in the various seasons, but based on her reaction, this must be the first time Narvi had seen the northern lights.

 

“Oh, this is wonderful!”   

 

Hopefully this view of the northern light would give her inspiration that would last through the winter. But they could not remain outdoors all night, soon they would need to return inside.

 

~X~X~X~X~X~X

 

When they had returned to the main halls of Khazad-dûm, a errand boy came up to Narvi with a message.

 

“Oh, _finally!_ I better go and get it as quickly as possible!” she said in a joyful voice at reading what it was about. Not even bothering to remove her cloak, she hurried away towards the main market, leaving Celebrimbor with the task of making a fire in the kitchen stove so they could cook a late dinner.

 

“I wonder what made her so happy?”  

 

He soon got a answer on that question, as Narvi came back with her arms filled with carefully sealed small clay jars.

 

“I finally got my hands on those spices, that we uses in the East, again! I was so worried that the merchants from the East would be delayed or prevented from getting here completely because of the snow outside! Even if I had laid a order last year, you never know if something arrives in time!”

 

Despite her current age, she almost looked like her younger self again for a moment, from the beginning of their unexpected friendship that eventually had turned into love and marriage over the years.

 

“Since I am unfamiliar with how to use those precious spices, I am leaving the cooking to you.”

 

“Very wise choice. They cost a lot of money because they need to be transported from the Orocarni!”

 

Again, Narvi showed that she had learnt something about trade by being the daughter of a merchant, which Celebrimbor had no idea about. He knew the value of money, yes, but she was the expect when it came to exotic goods from her birthplace.   

 

Their small banquet was very nice and merry as always whatever Narvi had all the things needed to create the dishes of her childhood. Despite sitting opposite her, Celebrimbor often looked up to see Narvi. The reason was simple; it was with her favorite dishes served that could often prove just how stunning she could be.  

 

The soup was the starter, and Narvi put her spoon in it. She peered at it, slowly placed on the tip of her tongue. He noticed that her green eyes widened for an instant, and she suddenly smiled as though she was melting in intoxication. Her cheeks were flushed, eyes almost on the verge of watering. Her lips drew an arc, and from her slightly parted lips, he saw white teeth and a captivating tongue.

 

This was why dwarrowdams could be just as gorgeous as their counterparts, just in a completely different way then what Elves and Men could gasp,

 

Those lips that licked up that drop, was like a ripe fruit smile of a celestial being. For Narvi to have a such reaction, the cooking must be indescribably delicious for her this night.

 

“Are you gonna eat or not?” Narvi suddenly said, giving him a pointed look over that he was focused on her and not the food.

 

“Pardon me.”

 

~X~X~X~X~X~X

 

Once neither one wanted to wash the dishes that late, they choose to leave it for the following morning instead after sleeping when they had more energy to do tasks. Or rather, it was Narvi who needed the extra sleep as she was not exactly a young Dwarf anymore. She already had passed her hundred and seventy spring since birth, after all. This coming summer would mark the twenty-first year since their secret marriage.

 

“That reminds me...you might as well get that traditional gift for the midwinter festival now.”

 

She picked up a thin but long wooden box, well hidden behind the pile of silk underwears in her wardrobe since Celebrimbor was too much of a gentleman to dare sneaking around such intimate clothes, even if they belonged to his wife.

 

“May your ancestors bless you, beloved.”

 

When Celebrimbor opened the box, the gift was revealed to be a Dwarven-styled silver ring with a basic design of the Doors of Durin, as well a N rune for Narvi, for him to wear on one finger, as well a gold hairpin with the star of Fëanor as design on the decorated end, beautifully made out with tiny rubines.

 

“Since we still can not reveal our marriage without facing a lot of trouble for various reasons, I tried to order something from a trusted jewelsmith that could still be a stand-in for a common sign of marriage among my race,” Narvi explained as she helped him fasten the hairpin in his ponytail. It was not a royal crown, yet it looked good on Celebrimbor as a contrast to his dark hair, especially as he rarely wore gold and it was often joked that he liked silver more because of his father-name.  

 

“You have a good point about how people may react on a Elf and a Dwarf marrying, but I still appreciate the thought a lot.”

 

In return, he gave her the gift he had planned for her during the festival as well. It was also a ring, in silver yet done by his own hands so it was more of a Elvish style. And it held the eight-rayed star of Fëanor as symbol.

 

“I may have the most strange taste in a wife of all my male relatives in my birth family, but I am proud to call you my legal consort despite that we are from different races,” Celebrimbor said as she put the new ring on her finger.

 

“If that famed Elf Princess could marry a mortal and have descendants that is still alive to this day, perhaps there is a chance for us as well. I only hope that it might be a mystery solved by my Maker and the All-Father soon, for in only three decades I will be at the age when I loses my already decreased fertility for good. There have been a few recorded cases of Dams having a unexpected child roughly at my current age, but it is associated with very high risk of complications during the pregnancy for both mother and child, not to mention that the child risk to lose the mother to death at a young age when they might still need necessary advice every young adult Dwarf may request from the parents…” Narvi sighed, holding her hands over her flat stomach which never had grown large in the natural way which was bound to happen after love-making at some point. Sometimes she had imagined the feeling of a child growing inside her womb, sired by Celebrimbor as the first child born between a Elf and a Dwarf. Perhaps it was selfish of her to wish for a daughter, but with how there had been no daughter born at all in his paternal family and Narvi herself being one of very rare daughters born among the Dwarves, it would be nice to break that pattern with a sweet little girl.     

 

“You will always be my wife even if we may not have any children with our blood. Did you not explain with your own words that adoption is more common among the Stone Children than the Star Children when there is a orphaned child?”

 

“Only because you overgrown, beardless airheads are stuck with living forever and was spoiled with being sheltered from death back in Valinor. Had all of you Elves remained in Middle-Earth I think death would less of a horrible shock,” she commented in a dry humour, using the Dwarven version of a endearing insult meant as friendly. Celebrimbor smiled at it.

 

“And my grandfather may have been less viewed as broken because my great-grandmother gave so much of herself spiritually to her unborn son that she could not recover as she could have done after birth and he was the only Elf in Valinor with a father who remarried a new wife.”

 

Narvi did facepalm.

“Did none of the first Elves remarry after losing a husband or wife, especially as they lived in a place where the Valar did not find them right away?! From what you found out in this Exile, that could very well be possible!”

 

Celebrimbor had to agree on that point. If only people had found the right words to tell a young Fëanor that he actually was not the only child in a such situation, things could have looked way different for his family.

 

“Well, I can imagine you and my grandmother Nerdanel getting so caught up in a talk about something you have in common; working with stone.”

 

That made her laugh.

 

“Be careful with your words, silver husband, that may come true one way or another,” she warned with a temping smile which promised something way different than retire for the night in their bedchamber soon. It seemed that they would take the following day off to catch up missing sleep.  

 

“And why not? I can really imagine that you two would have a lot to talk about,” he grinned at her with lifting his arms behind his head so the strong biceps on his arms was visible, inviting her to take the bait. Celebrimbor was not surprised at all when Narvi suddenly lifted him up with her arms, holding him firmly around the shins so his feet no longer touched the floor.   

 

“ _You are so asking for_ **_a private celebration_ ** _of the midwinter festival,_ ” she smirked, the mere sight of that seductive look in her green eyes making a certain body part on him to react.

 

Well, they both was in the right mood for that, so why not? In return, Celebrimbor licked his lips in a erotic manner. This night was going to end in so many pleasant ways, for sure.  

**Author's Note:**

> In my stories Narvi is a Dwarrowdam from the Orocarni Mountains in the East, and thus is not someone of Durin's folk


End file.
